AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone wireless carrier, plans to finally enable MMS messaging for its iPhone 3G and 3GS customers on September 25. Three months after Apple wowed Mac fans with the iPhone 3GS unveiling–and AT&T simultaneously disappointed the same masses because its iPhone users would not be able to take advantage of one of the devices most-touted features, MMS, or multimedia text messaging–AT&T now says it will enable iPhone MMS on September 25. AT&T iPhone MMS Announcement Image Shortly after the iPhone 3GS was announced, AT&T said it would enable MMS by the end of the summer. The carrier’s cutting it awful close, but it seems to have stuck to its promise. From a posting on AT&T’s site: SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe “We know many of our iPhone customers are eager for an update on our rollout schedule for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). We’ve been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches–and that launch date is: September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. MMS will be enabled through a software update on that day. We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end. Traffic on AT&T’s wireless network has increased by roughly 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and there’s no end to that growth in sight, according to the carrier. And the “software update” AT&T mentions is presumably iPhone OS 3.1. After Apple unveiled the iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS 3.0, which also supports MMS messaging, AT&T caught quite a bit of criticism from customers and wannabe iPhone users over its decision to block MMS. In fact, AT&T was even sued by some angry customers, though the lawsuits did little to motivation the carrier to enable the feature. Still missing from the AT&T-iPhone-equation are tethering and Bluetooth file sharing capabilities, both of which could technically be available to current iPhone and iPhone 3GS users, though AT&T still hasn’t enabled them. AS Related content news CIO Announces the CIO 100 UK and shares Industry Recognition Awards in flagship evening celebrations By Romy Tuin Sep 28, 2023 4 mins CIO 100 IDG Events Events feature 12 ‘best practices’ IT should avoid at all costs From telling everyone they’re your customer to establishing SLAs, to stamping out ‘shadow IT,’ these ‘industry best practices’ are sure to sink your chances of IT success. By Bob Lewis Sep 28, 2023 9 mins CIO IT Strategy Careers interview Qualcomm’s Cisco Sanchez on structuring IT for business growth The SVP and CIO takes a business model first approach to establishing an IT strategy capable of fueling Qualcomm’s ambitious growth agenda. By Dan Roberts Sep 28, 2023 13 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership feature Gen AI success starts with an effective pilot strategy To harness the promise of generative AI, IT leaders must develop processes for identifying use cases, educate employees, and get the tech (safely) into their hands. By Bob Violino Sep 27, 2023 10 mins Generative AI Innovation Emerging Technology Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe